When I saw an advertisement for the reissued DVD of Hayao Miyazaki's feature-film directing debut, THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO, I thought that Disney had aquired the licensing rights to the film. After all, the packaging looked nearly identical to Disney releases of Miyazaki films like NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND -- same red border at the top, same basic layout of the cover image (main characters of the film front and center, with an establishing-shot background behind them).But no. Manga Video is merely reissuing the DVD it issued a few years ago, albeit in a "special edition" -- one packaged to look like a Disney Miyazaki release. Fooled me, until I saw the tiny Manga logo in the ad.
This makes me curious as to whether Manga has any agreement with Disney concerning use of Disney's packaging -- what they call "trade dress."
Incidently, the main character of CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO is Arsene Lupin III -- a thief.
1 comment:
Didn't the Apple vs Microsoft lawsuit prove that you can't copyright/trademark "look and feel"?
It's not as if this is anything new, really; whenever the latest Disney cartoon comes out, you always seem to see a zillion low-budget animated versions of the same fairy tale or novel pop up on discount store shelves right away, and often they try to look as close to the Disney version as they think they can get away with. I'd think something would have been done about that before now if it could be.
Incidentally, amusingly enough, Buena Vista (Disney) has the rights to distribute Cagliostro in the rest of the world other than the USA.
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